blog.greggman.com

The Da Vinci Code for Mormons

2016-02-19

I'm an ex−Mormon and this episode really resonated in a lot of ways. In
particular I guess personally, even though I'm now 100% atheist I've defended
the Mormon church in the past. I guess I would say as an atheist I believe all
churches and all religions are wrong and so I've defended the Mormon church has
being no different than any other church. By defending I mean when someone
makes fun of the Mormon church for whatever (believing the nearest planet to
God's residence is the planet Kolab) I point out how that is no more a strange
belief than any other religion's beliefs (God lives in some alternate dimension
we can't see until we die).

What I find really fascinating though is that people can continue to want to
believe even AFTER accepting the evidence their church is founded on lies.
Religion isn't decided by committee by definition. If it was it would no longer
be a religion. So for example, at least according to that podcast, some people
asked for priesthood for women in the Mormon church or acceptance of LGBT.
Doing either of those makes the church no longer the church. It proves even
harder the church was never true to begin with.

Let me make it clear. I'm 100% pro LGBT and women's rights. That's not my point
and is one of the many reasons I'm atheist. My point is if a church has been
saying for for hundreds or thousands of years that X is evil because God says
so and then changes that to X is not evil they've just proven the previous
hundreds or thousands of years were bullshit. At that point there's no reason
for the church to exist. Everyone should just leave. If you want a social club
with emotional support fine, organize one. But asking a church to change it's
stance makes zero sense. If you succeed you've just proven your church is
false.